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In the back drop of the deadly Maoist attack in Chattisgarh last month, an all party meeting will be held in the capital today to chalk out a consensus among all political stake holders on ways to tackle the Naxalite problem. The meeting which has been convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will also be addressed by Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.
The attack in which the entire top brass of the Congress party was wiped out while returning from a political rally saw both the Congress and the ruling BJP in the state trading charges against each other.
Law and order being a state subject, tackling the Maoist challenge has for long been a contentious issue between the Centre and the states. The Centre has sent Central security forces on the request of Maoist affected states and left it to the states on how to deploy them.
Post the Chattisgarh attack where the Raman Singh led BJP government came in for wide spread criticism for failure on the intelligence gathering front, a UPA Coordination Committee meeting was held in the capital. At that meeting which was held last week at the Prime Minister's residence and attended by Congress President Sonia Gandhi alongwith allies NCP President Sharad Pawar, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and IUML chief E Ahamed, it was decided that an all party meet would be held to discuss and reach a consensus among all political parties on the strategy to be adopted to tackle the Naxalite problem.
Addressing the Chief Minister's Conference on Internal Security on Friday last, the Prime Minister had reiterated the government's two-pronged anti-Maoist strategy needed to be strengthened - sustained security operations on the ground and addressing developmental challenges at the same time.
The Naxalite problem has increasingly become a political issue with no clear views on how the issue was to be addressed; while the Chattisgarh government’s “Salwa Judum” operation of arming tribals to fight the Naxals had only exacerbated the situation, Congress ministers like KC Deo have been warning of the perils of adopting an out and out law and order approach to the Maoist problem. The Tribal Affairs minister Deo stresses on the need to meet the developmental needs of the tribals in these areas which are being wholly exploited by handing over these regions to industry and mining interests.
